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Southampton are in the running to land a deal for Watford veteran Troy Deeney before the EFL transfer window closes this week.

According to written version of The Sunday Mirror (via tbrfootball.com), The Saints are rivalling two other Premier League sides who are also looking to bring the Englishman back to the top flight. No asking price has been named for Deeney but as it stands, he has less than 12 months left on his current contract and he is not getting much game time for the Hornets.

An ideal back-up for Ings

Transfermarkt currently value the striker at £5.8million so an offer in that region could be enough to get a deal done. However, as the 32-year-old looks to be surplus to Vladimir Ivic’s side, Watford may accept a much smaller fee.

With Ralph Hasenhuttl already strengthening his attack with the addition of Theo Walcott on loan from Everton, bringing in Deeney would be a smart move to further bolster Southampton’s ranks. The Austrian could play two men up top and have both experienced strikers posing a threat, but the likelihood is that the Watford skipper would still play second fiddle to Danny Ings.

The former Liverpool man has a gruesome backlog of injuries, suffering ACL damage during his time at Anfield. Saints fans will be keeping a close eye on Ings’ fitness in case his previous problems come back to haunt him and having another option to manage Ings’ game time could be a wise move. At 32, Deeney might be looking for the club he wants to retire with and Southampton could be a good destination for him.

Hasenhuttl will want to improve on his 11th place finish last season and he might even be eying up a top six place in the near future. Deeney’s seniority and desire to win a trophy could be a driving force in a Southampton side that is seemingly on the rise.

In other news, Agent says Brandon Williams would be “absolutely mental” not to join Southampton…

In a hugely sobering evening on Thursday for Tottenham, Jose Mourinho’s side could only muster a 0-0 draw against a Bournemouth team battling against relegation this season.

The Lilywhites only managed nine total shots on goal in the entire game, and none of them were on target. Whilst the forward players in particular struggled to get involved in proceedings – Harry Kane only made 14 passes – one man suffered a nightmare: Giovani Lo Celso.

The Argentina international started the game in a midfield three alongside Moussa Sissoko and Harry Winks, but failed to really get things going.

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In fact, as per Sofascore, his overall match rating of 6.1 was by far the worst of any Spurs player on the pitch, and perhaps one of the main reasons behind him being hooked at half-time by Mourinho (although Sunday’s north London derby may have also played its part too).

Despite only featuring for the first-half, Lo Celso lost the ball a staggering 15 times, with only Serge Aurier and Ben Davies conceding it on more occasions (18 each).

The Argentine failed to have a single shot on goal, made no tackles or interceptions, provided no key passes or accurate crosses, and won just one of his eight total duels.

For someone who has established him as a key part of this Spurs side in his debut season at the club – he has made 33 appearances across all competitions – it was a performance that left a lot to be desired.

With European football still up for grabs, Mourinho would surely have been left fuming at one of his more creative midfielders being unable to unlock the door against one of the Premier League’s struggling sides.

The forwards were starved of real service, and Lo Celso’s horror showing was a major reason behind that.

Spurs will surely be hoping the £36m-rated ace just had a minor blip on Thursday, and that with Arsenal to come in their next Premier League fixture, they will be seeing him resume normal service very soon.

According to O Jogo, Leeds are interested in signing Torino defender Lyanco this summer.

What’s the word?

With Gaetano Berardi suffering a long-term injury that could keep him out for up to nine months, and Ben White’s return to Elland Road on a permanent basis still up in the air, Leeds are unsurprisingly on the look-out for a new centre-back.

And according to Portuguese publication O Jogo, the Whites are in the running to lure Lyanco to the club. The report claims that Sporting CP failed to match Torino’s asking price for the defender, and that with Marcelo Bielsa’s side being in a stronger financial position, they could yet capitalise.

Is it Haaland Snr or David Hopkins? Your Leeds knowledge will be put to the test with this quiz…



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It’s further added that Leeds could face added competition from the likes of Lille and Bologna.

Completely dominated Cristiano Ronaldo

Though Torino may have slipped to an agonising 1-0 home defeat to Juventus last season in the Serie A, Lyanco was undoubtedly one of the standout performers for the Italian side.

Coming up against Cristiano Ronaldo, the Brazilian masterminded a superb rearguard performance, foiling the multiple time Ballon d’Or winner on numerous occasions. As per Sofascore, the former Real Madrid superstar had seven total shots in the entire game, but only found the target on three of them, with Lyanco and his teammates not giving him a clean look at goal.

Ronaldo conceded possession 12 times and lost more than 50% of his duels, whilst Lyanco made team-highs of: four clearances, two blocked shots and two tackles. That’s not to mention that he won 75% of the challenges that he contested on the ground.

The 6 foot 2 powerhouse shackled Ronaldo with aplomb, and with Leeds searching for a centre-back to potentially marshal them in both Berardi and potentially even White’s absence next season, Lyanco could well be that man to step up in their shoes.

As Mikel Arteta heads into his first summer transfer window in charge at the Emirates, all eyes will be on what kind of players he will manage to bring in to continue his revolution in north London.The Spaniard was named the permanent successor to Unai Emery back in December, and picked up some notable results before all of football was postponed, including a 2-0 home victory over Premier League rivals Manchester United.

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Now, according to French publication Le10Sport, Arsenal are dreaming of bringing in Barcelona star Philippe Coutinho back to English football, and that they have even “made their arrangements to start the first discussions with his agent,ÂKia Joorabchian”.

After hearing about the links to the Brazilian play-maker, fans of the north London side flooded to Twitter to share their thoughts about their rumoured transfer target.

Like a few Gunners fans have suggested, there may be a concern that the north London side are relying a bit too heavily on super-agents and contacts to sign new players.

Coutinho’s qualities are undoubted given that he is played for the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich in recent years, but simply bringing in him because his agent has a good relationship with the hierarchy would not be a move with the right intentions.

Former Spurs wonderkid Marcus Edwards left Tottenham Hotspur last summer and some fans have been scratching their heads ever since.

Edwards has shown his old club exactly what they have been missing at Vitória de Guimarães this season. The talented winger is without a doubt a case of ‘one that got away’ from Spurs in recent years. For whatever reason, it never seemed to work out for him in north London and he moved to Portugal instead.

According to A Bola, as per Sport Witness, Jose Mourinho is eager to bring him back to Tottenham this summer, with his departure from the Portuguese club described as ‘inevitable’.

Mourinho wants to rectify the mistake made by his predecessor Mauricio Pochettino, who let Edwards slip through his grasp last year. The Argentine compared him to Lionel Messi but he never really got a chance to prove himself in London and was subsequently shipped out to the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques.

The 21-year-old, who plays on the right wing, has played 23 games in Liga NOS this season, scoring six goals, supplying five assists, taking 1.7 shots per game, averaging 1.4 key passes and completing 3.1 dribbles per game on average (WhoScored).

He enjoyed another eye-catching performance over the weekend as he supplied a beautiful assist in the 2-1 win over Gil Vicente.

However, Daniel Levy could face some competition from Manchester United, who have been interested in the winger for a while.

His release clause is reportedly worth €15m (£13.5m) but he won’t cost Spurs that much. In fact, they’d only have to pay the Portuguese side half the price, as they will receive half of the profits if he is sold.

Regardless, Vitória de Guimarães will make a huge profit either way, as he joined the club as a free agent.

Spurs have a lot of options on their wings, including Son Heung-min, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn, and whether or not Levy will be willing to splash the cash on the Tottenham academy graduate remains to be seen.

Tottenham fans, should Levy sign Marcus Edwards in the summer? Let us know in the comments below!

Loads of Celtic fans have been reacting to some news on the future of Odsonne Edouard, as one of his suitors have reportedly eased their interest in the striker.

According to reports in Germany, via The Daily Record, Borussia Dortmund have decided against making a move for the Hoops’ French star.

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The report claims the Bundesliga outfit were in fact eyeing the 22 year-old, as they sent scouts to watch him in action for France’s U21s in their 5-3 win over Slovakia back in October – he scored a hat-trick.

However, they were not “sufficiently convinced” after watching the starlet and have also been put off by his £30m price tag.

This is of course great news for Neil Lennon and Celtic, who would surely love to keep a player of Edouard’s calibre for as a long as possible.

The youngster has racked up a remarkable 46 goal involvements in 45 matches in all competitions this season, and the Twitter reactions down below are over the moon with the latest update, as one fan called it “fantastic news”…

Celtic fans were loving some old comments from Artur Boruc…

Lots of Everton fans are drooling over footage of Dominic Calvert-Lewin after the Merseyside club posted a clip of the striker keeping up a ball in his back garden on their official Twitter page.

The 23-year old showed off his skills as one supporter claimed that he kept up the ball 201 times. The £21.6 million-rated man has been enjoying a relatively impressive season thus far, managing 15 goals and one assist in 32 appearances in all competitions for the Toffees, meaning that he either scores or assists in every other game, according to Transfermarkt.

This has arguably been the Englishman’s best campaign in his career given his club stats prior, where he has managed 44 goals and 14 assists in total from 172 appearances, as per the website. He learned to play men’s football in England at quite a young age, representing Sheffield United in the 2014/15 term whilst also enjoying a loan spell at Northampton Town and representing his country at youth level.

These Evertonians were drooling over the footage of ‘DCL’:

Everton fans, what do you think of Calvert-Lewin? Comment below!

Since joining from Palmeiras in the summer of 2016 for a fee in the region of £27m, Gabriel Jesus has had to settle for being second-fiddle at Manchester City.

After all, when you’ve got the club’s record goal-scorer still banging in the goals as Sergio Aguero continues to do, you probably can’t expect to be any more than that.

Jesus’ own record in front of goal at the Etihad is impressive in its own right however, with the 22-year-old netting 50 times in 115 games. This season, the forward has been prolific too, scoring five goals. But on international duty with Brazil on Friday night, the City man had a moment and night to forget.

Coming up against rivals Argentina, the ace had the chance to give his country the lead from a penalty, but promptly stepped up to miss. His misery was almost immediately compounded when Lionel Messi struck from the spot just minutes later.

And after seeing Jesus’ struggles, fans took to Twitter to hammer the forward for his horror moment.

Many supporters insisted the 22-year-old is quite simply over-rated and over-hyped, with one fan in particular claiming that once he takes over from Aguero as the main man, he will be “exposed”.

Check out some of the reaction of fans below:

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.

Leeds United laboured to a 1-0 win against Reading on Tuesday evening, and it’s fair to say that the Whites weren’t at their very best at the Madejski Stadium.

Indeed, Marcelo Bielsa’s side had to leave it late in order to pick up all three points against Reading as they relied on an 87th-minute winner to break the deadlock.

Leeds only had two shots on target all evening as they struggled to really create anything, but one man who was able to make things happen was Helder Costa.

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Snapshot

Costa’s introduction to the game came in rather unfortunate circumstances as Tyler Roberts limped off injured just after the half-hour mark against Reading.

With the game level at 0-0, the Portuguese winger was subbed on for Roberts as he took Pablo Hernandez’s place on the right-wing with the Spaniard moving inside to take up the number 10 role vacated by the injured Welshman.

Changed the attack

Not only was Costa effective when he came on against Reading, but he completely changed the way that Leeds attacked during the game.

Take a look at Hernandez’s heatmap (right) from just after Roberts’ injury compared to Costa’s (left) at full-time and it’s clear to see how the Wolves loanee changed the way Leeds were going forward.

As you can see, when Hernandez was being played out on the right he’d often drift inside or drop deeper, and that wasn’t proving very effective as the Spaniard completed just one key pass all evening.

In contrast, Costa stayed wide for the majority of the time out wide, rarely coming inside, and while this could be seen as being one-dimensional and predictable, the 25-year-old’s pace and dynamism allowed him to be the most creative player on the pitch on Tuesday.

Costa played three key passes while also delivering the vital cross that allowed Jack Harrison to net the winner.

It was arguably the summer signing’s best performance since joining the Elland Road outfit as he got his second assist of the season against the Royals.

In other news, check out what Phil Hay has said about Leeds’ plans in January..

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

After a small period that can only be described as the calm before the storm, the usual roller coaster that is Gareth Bale’s career at Real Madrid is now back in full force.

Even though it did seem like his fortune might be turning at the beginning of the ongoing 2019/20 La Liga season, he’s now practically back to where he was a couple of months ago – blacklisted and awaiting a potential transfer in the near future.

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At least that’s what the recent reports coming from AS are suggesting and seeing how he’s almost missed the same amount of games he’s played this season so far, this wouldn’t really be that big of a surprise if it came true.

But one thing that somehow kept Real Madrid second-guessing their decision to let the 30-year-old Welshman go was their inability to find him a suitable replacement, as the same source suggests as well.

After all, when he was fit and motivated, just like it was the case at the beginning of the campaign, he immediately proved that there is still quality in his feet.

In the first three games of the new season, Bale bagged two goals and one assist to his name but as his absences started mounting, the general contribution dipped significantly.

Since then, he only managed to register one more assist but that was mostly it as far as his performances went.

Watch Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale answer the internet’s weirdest questions in the video below…

But looking at Los Blancos’s squad that they have on their hands, the fear of losing someone as influential as Bale should not be that big.

The main reason for that is actually the 18-year-old prodigy, Rodrygo.

Interestingly enough, in Real Madrid’s last Champions League clash, it was the young Brazilian who replaced Bale on the pitch and on that right-wing and needless to say, he made a big statement with his display.

This should be extremely encouraging for Zinedine Zidane since between Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior, the Welshman’s spot seems rather well covered for the future.

Of course, we are talking about extremely young players replacing a veteran of the game but they’ve already proved to their coach they can be counted on.

If the Galacticos really want to offload Bale, now is the right time to do it – he is still worth £54m according to Transfermarkt, his unhappiness at the club is not really news anymore and most importantly, there are people capable of replacing him once he leaves.

All things considered, Real Madrid can finally afford to part ways with their outcast and live to tell the tale.

Let’s see if they finally decide to pull the trigger.